Excitement of starting a business with OCOP

Specialty lotus seeds of Truong Phat Lotus Seed Processing Facility (Nhon Trach district) are certified OCOP products of the province in 2019. Photo: Phan Anh

A great potential

With the potential of establishing 25 concentrated production areas for plants; 139 regions for animal husbandry development; strong collective economy, etc., Dong Nai has many advantages for OCOP development. 

According to the initial survey, there are about 190 OCOP products in the province, including: 155 food products, 6 beverage products, 5 herbal products, 13 products of souvenir - interior - decoration group, 10 products of rural tourism service group, sales, and so on.

In the first year of implementation, the program attracted many unique specialties of localities registered to participate such as: forest bitter melon tea of Hiep Van Forest Bitter Melon Co., Ltd (Xuan Tan Ward, Long Khanh City); nutritious lotus powder of Truong Phat Lotus Seed Processing Facility (Long Tan commune, Nhon Trach district); Cocoa wine of Trong Duc Cocoa Company Limited,... The units participating in the OCOP Program all want to be supported so that the local specialties are constantly reaching out, becoming the specialty brand of provincial and national levels.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le, owner of Truong Phat Lotus Seed Processing Facility (Nhon Trach district) shared: “Lotus is a long-standing specialty of Nhon Trach. I invest in processing lotus products using traditional manual methods, meticulously take care from the selection of input materials to the processing stages because we want the scent of Nhon Trach lotus flower to spread further and further.”

With the same desire, Ms. Tran Thi Hong Van, Director of Hiep Van Forest Bitter Melon Co., Ltd said, its bitter melon tea was selected in the first OCOP product group of Dong Nai province. This is the motivation for them to boldly invest in expanding production and developing more new product lines. “We have cooperated with many farmers to develop bitter melon plantation areas to ensure clean raw materials for production, while contributing to raising farmers' income” - Ms. Van said.

Create platform for the popularity of specialties

Farmers introduced OCOP products at a trade promotion program for agricultural products held in Bien Hoa City in 2019. Photo: Phan Anh

The role of the State in the OCOP Program is to create comprehensive support for farmers, cooperatives and businesses such as: support for consultancy, training and coaching; formulating and announcing product quality standards; in accessing preferential capital; promotion...

Highlights OCOP program achieved in 2019 confirmed the interest and investment of Dong Nai government for this program. Although the evaluation results of Dong Nai have only 2 products with 4-star standards, in fact many other 3-star products have many criteria for achieving 4-star standards. Participating businesses and facilities are also interested in upgrading so that OCOP products have been recognized, in which focusing on developing export market channels is also one of the important criteria to improve such that OCOP products.

According to Mr. Tran Quang Tinh, Director of Viet Farm Trading Co., Ltd. (Xuan Loc district), the company's products fully meet the OCOP 4 and 5 star standards because they have GlobalGAP certification. It is expected that in 2020, businesses will have products for export to Japan and Europe because there are already partners coming to discuss cooperation plans to bring farm products for export. “In the coming time, businesses will focus on adding requirements and perfecting the profile to continue raising so that the product, including an important requirement is to develop export markets” – said Mr. Tinh.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Huynh Thanh Vinh said that according to regulations, at the provincial level, only one review and recognition of OCOP products are made every year. But in Dong Nai, this program will be held regularly, which is possible for each quarter to promptly review, evaluate and recognize additional new OCOP products as well as improve the OCOP products that have been recognized. The evaluation will be done closely, in accordance with regulations, especially with special attention to the safety and quality standards of the product being evaluated.

By Binh Nguyen